From digital natives to digital citizens: the urgency of technological literacy
We live in an era where it’s assumed that young people, having grown up surrounded by screens, are “digital natives“. It’s assumed that this innately gives them digital and technological skills when in reality, we’ve perhaps never been so illiterate when it comes to what really matters.
I always remember a true story. A friend of mine’s 82-year-old mother decided she wanted to learn how to use an iPad. She asked her grandson to buy her one and teach her how to use it, even though it was just coming out. My friend’s son, who isn’t very tech-savvy, was frustrated with the decision. He didn’t see the point in an 80-year-old woman spending so much money on such an expensive gadget.
When questioned, her mother— a doctor and pharmacist, one of the first women in her medical school, who gave up practicing to leave the spotlight to her husband and ended up working as a pharmacist, a very typical female decision but at least very financially savvy—answered calmly and firmly:
“I’ve never been illiterate in my life. And I won’t be now. I consider not knowing how to use these devices today to be illiterate, and that’s something I’ve never been and never will be.”
And so, she began to use her iPad with skill, probably becoming one of the first women of her age to use Facebook with ease more than 15 years ago.
How right he was. Both in challenging the norms of his time by studying medicine and in recognizing the digital illiteracy we all suffer from today.
The confusion between being a digital native and having real digital skills
It’s mistakenly assumed that simply because they were born in the digital age, young people are proficient with technology. Even worse, it’s assumed that this, in and of itself, has professional value.
But in most cases, being a “digital native” just means that they consume technology compulsively, and not at its best.
Knowing how to navigate TikTok, managing multiple Instagram accounts, or spending hours on Twitch doesn’t necessarily mean you have real digital skills.
Many of these “natives” don’t know how to write an email clearly, use Excel, protect their information online, or understand how a database is structured.
And most worryingly, due to their excessive consumption of low-quality digital content, they are more exposed than anyone to brain rot, a progressive erosion of the ability to concentrate and think critically.
Not only does it harm their intellectual development, but it also makes them the perfect target for manipulation of their opinions, their perception of the world, and their identity as citizens.
But this, although disturbing, is not the most serious thing.
True digital illiteracy
The problem is not just the confusion between entertainment and technological knowledge.
The real problem is technological illiteracy: the fact that most people, young and old, not only do not know how to use technology productively but, even more seriously, are completely unaware of the fundamentals that govern it and the influence it exerts on their lives.
We are increasingly controlled by algorithms. We consume content, make purchases, and make decisions influenced by AI models and large databases that process our information in ways we barely understand.
We have all our personal, financial, and even biometric data recorded, analyzed, and used to shape our behavior.
If you think this doesn’t affect you, ask yourself :
- What is an algorithm? It’s not magic; it’s a set of rules that determine what you see and what you don’t see on your social media, on Google, on any digital platform. It’s the reason why certain news stories appear in your feed and others don’t, why you consistently see the same type of content on YouTube or Instagram, and why, without realizing it, your opinions become polarized over time.
- What is a Large Language Model (LLM)? It’s not just “an AI that answers questions.” It’s a large-scale learning model that trains on billions of data points and increasingly makes decisions that affect us without our knowledge.
- How does data collection work? It’s not science fiction. It’s the foundation of a system where everything we do, from the music we listen to to what we search for online, is converted into information for training artificial intelligence and shaping our digital reality.
- What is location tracking? It’s what allows Google Maps to tell you how long it will take you to get home, but it also allows many companies to track where you’ve been, with whom, how often, and what your spending patterns are.
- What is user profiling? It’s the technique social media and advertising companies use to create a “digital version” of you based on your search history, clicks, likes, and purchases.
And here is the real danger:
According to a recent study by Samsung, published in October 2024, only 15% of Europeans know how to use artificial intelligence (AI) in their daily lives.
This means that 85% of the population does not fully understand how the technology that already impacts every aspect of their existence works.
We live in the digital age, but without even remotely understanding the mechanisms that govern it.
Why is it serious?
Because our citizens are increasingly dependent on technology :
- Banks no longer serve us without an app.
- We can’t pay without a card, without a QR code, without a digital ID.
- We identify ourselves with our fingerprint, our iris, our social networks.
- When we log in to any service, we hand over our entire identity to companies that not only know who we are, but also what we like, how we have fun, how we think, and who we interact with.
Knowing all this would bring us a little closer to being free and conscious citizens, but we’re moving like blind men, coordinated by invisible buying commands, radicalized like never before in our opinions, not by conscious choice, but by algorithms. We often vote automatically for extreme positions, without realizing how they’ve shaped us.
And things are so serious that, sometimes, because of this game, we put people in charge who might not even have been our conscious choice, and with so much power that they can even change our world, our lives, peace and war, overnight.
Do you see how important and dramatic what we are experiencing is?
And the worst part: all of this is explainable. It’s not a mystery like the existence of the universe. It can be taught. It can be understood without being a technologist. But it isn’t done.
The right to technological literacy
If you represent a foundation, company, or entity interested in the future of technology education, let’s talk.
This isn’t a trivial matter. It’s urgent.
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